William H. Prescott
Encyclopedia
William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796 – January 29, 1859) was an American historian and Hispanist
Hispanist
A Hispanist is a scholar specialising in Hispanic studies, that is Spanish or Portuguese language, literature, linguistics, or civilization, and by extension, Basque, Catalan and Galician....

, who is widely recognized by historiographers
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

 to have been the first American scientific historian. Despite suffering from serious visual impairment, which at times prevented him from reading or writing for himself, Prescott became one of the most eminent historians of 19th century America. He is also noted for his eidetic memory
Eidetic memory
Eidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...

.

A direct descendant of the revolutionary
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

 American officer William Prescott
William Prescott
William Prescott was an American colonel in the Revolutionary War who commanded the rebel forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill...

, William H. Prescott spent his childhood and adolescence in Boston, Massachusetts
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. Prescott attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, and considered a legal career, but his poor health prevented him from working professionally and he therefore dedicated himself to a life of writing. After an extensive period of study, during which he sporadically contributed to academic journals, Prescott specialized in late Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 Spain and the early Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....

. His works on the subject, The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (1837), The History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843), A History of the Conquest of Peru (1847) and the unfinished History of the Reign of Phillip II (1856–1858) have become classic works in the field, and have had a great impact on the study of both Spain and Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

. During his lifetime, he was upheld as one of the greatest living American intellectuals, and knew personally many of the leading political figures of the day, in both the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Prescott has become one of the most widely translated American historians, and was an important figure in the development of history as a rigorous academic discipline.

Early life

William H. Prescott was born in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

 on May 4, 1796, the first of seven children, although four of his siblings died in infancy. His parents were William Prescott, Jr.
William Prescott, Jr.
William Prescott, Jr. was a representative from Massachusetts to the 1814-15 Hartford Convention....

, a lawyer, and his wife, née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...

 Catherine Greene Hickling. His grandfather William Prescott
William Prescott
William Prescott was an American colonel in the Revolutionary War who commanded the rebel forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill...

 served as a colonel during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

.
Prescott began formal schooling at the age of seven, studying under Mr. Jacob Knapp. The family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1808, where his father's earnings substantially increased. His studies continued under Dr. John Gardiner, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church
Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 3,000 households, was founded in 1733. The current rector is The Reverend Anne Bonnyman...

. As a young man, Prescott frequented the Boston Athenæum
Boston Athenæum
Boston Athenæum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of only sixteen extant membership libraries, meaning that patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use the Athenæum's services...

, which at the time held the 10,000-volume private library
Private library
A private library is a library under the care of private ownership, as compared to that of a public institution, and is usually only established for the use of a small number of people, or even a single person. As with public libraries, some people use stamps, stickers, or embossing to show...

 of John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

, who was on a diplomatic mission to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. In 1832, Prescott became a trustee of the library, a position he held for 15 years.

Prescott enrolled at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 as a sophomore
Sophomore
Sophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...

 in August 1811, at the age of 15. He was not considered academically distinguished, despite showing promise in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. Prescott found mathematics particularly difficult, and resorted to memorizing mathematical demonstrations word-for-word, which he could do with relative ease, in order to hide his ignorance of the subject. Prescott's eyesight degenerated after being hit in the eye with a crust of bread during a food fight
Food fight
A food fight is a form of chaotic collective behavior, in which food is thrown at others in the manner of projectiles. These projectiles are not made to harm or damage others, but to simply ignite a fight filled with spontaneous food throwing. Food fights may be impromptu examples of rebellion or...

 as a student, and it remained weak and unstable throughout the rest of his life. Prescott was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...

 as a senior, which he considered a great personal honor, and graduated from Harvard in 1814. After a short period of rheumatic
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...

 illness, he embarked on an extended tour of Europe.

Prescott first traveled to the island of São Miguel
São Miguel Island
São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...

 in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

, where his grandfather and Portuguese grandmother lived. After two weeks, he left for the cooler climate of London, where he stayed with the distinguished surgeon Astley Cooper
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...

 and the oculist William Adams
William Adams (oculist)
Sir William Adams also known as Sir William Rawson after 1825. He was born at Morwenstow in Cornwall. He was well known as an ophthalmic surgeon and was founder of Exeter's West of England Eye Infirmary. John Nash had built the Ophthalmic Hospital for him on Albany Street, London...

. Prescott first used a noctograph
Noctograph
A noctograph is a writing instrument composed of a chemically treated paper, over which is placed a metal grid. The user writes with a metal stylus. The original purpose was to allow the blind or partially sighted to write with more ease than with a traditional pen, although it has also been used...

 while staying with Adams; the tool became a permanent feature of his life, allowing him to write independently in spite of his impaired eyesight. He visited Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London; it has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. The palace is located south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames...

 with future American president John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

, at the time a diplomat in London, where they saw the Raphael Cartoons
Raphael Cartoons
The Raphael Cartoons are seven large cartoons for tapestries, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, painted by the High Renaissance painter Raphael in 1515-16 and showing scenes from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles...

. In August 1816, Prescott traveled to Paris, but later moved on to Italy, where he spent the winter. He returned to Paris in early 1817, where he chanced to meet the American Hispanist
Hispanist
A Hispanist is a scholar specialising in Hispanic studies, that is Spanish or Portuguese language, literature, linguistics, or civilization, and by extension, Basque, Catalan and Galician....

 George Ticknor
George Ticknor
George Ticknor was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature....

, and made another visit to England. Prescott spent some time in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, where he saw the manuscripts of Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

's works, and returned to the United States in the same year. Prescott's first academic work, an essay submitted anonymously, was rejected by the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...

in late 1817. After a short period of courtship, he married Susan Amory, the daughter of Thomas Coffin Amory
Thomas Coffin Amory
Thomas Coffin Amory. An American lawyer, politician, biographer, and poet born in Boston, Massachusetts to Jonathan Amory and Mehitable Cutler.-Works:Biographies...

 and Hannah Rowe Linzee, on May 4, 1820.

Early career: The History of Ferdinand and Isabella

In 1821, Prescott abandoned the idea of a legal career because of the continued deterioration of his eyesight, and resolved to devote himself to literature. Although he initially studied a wide range of subjects, including Italian, French, English and Spanish literature, American history
History of North America
The history of North America is the study of the past, particularly the written record, oral histories, and traditions, passed down from generation to generation on the continent in the Earth's northern hemisphere and western hemisphere....

, classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 and political philosophy
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...

, Prescott came to focus on Italian poetry
Italian poetry
-Important Italian poets:* Giacomo da Lentini a 13th Century poet who is believed to have invented the sonnet.* Guido Cavalcanti Tuscan poet, and a key figure in the Dolce Stil Novo movement....

. Among the works he studied during this period were such classics as Dante's Divine Comedy and Boccacio's Decameron. His first published works were two essays in the North American Review—both discussing Italian poetry. The first of these, published in 1824, was titled Italian Narrative Poetry, and became somewhat controversial after it was heavily criticized in an Italian review by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte was a Venetian opera librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's greatest operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte....

, the librettist of Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

. Prescott wrote a succinct reply to Da Ponte's fifty-page argument in the North American Review of July 1825. Da Ponte published the criticisms as an appendix to his translation of Dodley's Economy of Human life, which resulted in Prescott noticing them rather late.

Prescott first became interested in the history of Spain after his friend, the Harvard professor George Ticknor, sent him copies of his lectures on the subject. Prescott's studies initially remained broad, but he started preparing material on Ferdinand and Isabella
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...

 in January 1826. His acquaintance Pascual de Gayangos y Arce
Pascual de Gayangos y Arce
Pascual de Gayangos y Arce was a Spanish scholar and orientalist.Born in Seville, he was the son of Brigadier José de Gayangos, intendente of Zacatecas, in New Spain. After completing his primary education in Madrid, at the age of thirteen he was sent to school at Pont-le-Voy near Blois...

 helped him construct a sizable personal library of historical books and manuscripts concerning the subject. Alexander Hill Everett
Alexander Hill Everett
Alexander Hill Everett was a noted American diplomatist, politician, and Boston man of letters. His brother was Edward Everett....

, an American diplomat in Spain, also provided him with material which was unavailable to Prescott in Boston. However, progress was stalled almost immediately, due to a sudden deterioration in Prescott's eyesight. Unable to find a reader fluent in Spanish, Prescott was forced to work through Spanish texts with an assistant who did not understand the language. When Alexander Everett heard of this situation, he provided Prescott with the services of George Lunt
George Lunt
George Lunt was an American editor, lawyer, author, and politician. George's ancestor, Henry Lunt, was one of the original settlers of Newbury . His grandfather's exploits with John Paul Jones were chronicled by James Fenimore Cooper. -Life:He attended Phillips Academy...

, who had adequate knowledge of Spanish for the task. However, this could only be a temporary arrangement, and he was replaced by a man named Hamilton Parker, who held the position for a year. Eventually George Ticknor, who was by then in charge of the department of modern literature at Harvard University, found James L. English, who worked with Prescott until 1831. Among the books studied by Prescott in this period, Ticknor lists Juan Antonio Llorente
Juan Antonio Llorente
Juan Antonio Llorente was a Spanish historian and liberal activist....

's Historia crítica de la Inquisición de España, Andrés Bernadez's Historia de los Reyes Católicos don Fernando y doña Isabel, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

's Charles XII and William Roscoe
William Roscoe
William Roscoe , was an English historian and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born in Liverpool, where his father, a market gardener, kept a public house called the Bowling Green at Mount Pleasant. Roscoe left school at the age of twelve, having learned all that his schoolmaster could teach...

's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, which were to be the sources on which the History of Ferdinand and Isabella was to be based. In spring 1828, Prescott visited Washington, where he and Ticknor dined with John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

 at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, and saw Congress in session.

Due in part to his own condition, Prescott was interested in aiding the blind and partially sighted. The Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins School for the Blind, located in Watertown, Massachusetts, is the oldest schools for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.-History:...

, then known as the New England Asylum, had been founded in Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...

 by Samuel Gridley Howe
Samuel Gridley Howe
Samuel Gridley Howe was a nineteenth century United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind.-Early life and education:...

, Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, or T. H. Perkins was a wealthy Boston merchant and an archetypical Boston Brahmin. Starting with bequests from his grandfather and father-in-law, he amassed a huge fortune...

 and John Dix Fisher
John Dix Fisher
John Dix Fisher, , physician and founder of Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts, was born in Needham, Massachusetts, the youngest of the six sons of Aaron and Lucy Fisher. The Fisher family was descended from Anthony Fisher, one of the signers of the Dedham Covenant in 1636...

 and 28 others in 1829. Prescott involved himself from the very start of the project, becoming a trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

 in 1830. He published an article in support of education for the blind in the North American Review of July 1830, and helped to raise $50,000 for the organization in May 1833.
His work was disturbed in February 1829 by the unexpected death of his eldest daughter Catherine, who was only four years old. This led him to reconsider his position on religion—previously an agnostic, his interest in Christianity was renewed, and having read the Bible, the works of the theologian William Paley
William Paley
William Paley was a British Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology, which made use of the watchmaker analogy .-Life:Paley was Born in Peterborough, England, and was...

 as well as more skeptical works such as Hume's
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...

 On Miracles, he came to acknowledge the "moral truth" of the gospels, while remaining opposed to the doctrines of orthodox Christianity. Despite this personal tragedy, and his own continued ill health, Prescott had gathered sufficient material to begin drafting the History in October 1829. At around this time, Prescott read the works of Gabriel Bonnot de Mably
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher and politician. He was born in Grenoble of a legal family, and, like his younger brother, the well-known philosopher, Étienne Bonnot de Condillac , took holy orders...

, including his historiographical piece De l’étude de l’histoire. He henceforth aimed to write history to de Mably's romantic ideal, and on more than one occasion expressed his indebtedness to him. Prescott also encountered Elogia de la Réina Doña Isabel, by his Spanish contemporary Diego Clemencín
Diego Clemencín
Diego Clemencín was a Spanish scholar and politician. Born at Murcia he was educated at the Colegio de San Fulgencio. Abandoning his intention of taking Holy Orders, he found employment at Madrid in 1788 as tutor to the sons of the countess-duchess de Benavente, and devoted himself to the study of...

, which helped shape his views concerning the monarchs' political roles. Due to further problems with his eyesight, it took him sixteen months to write the first three hundred pages of the History. It was largely finished by 1834, but Prescott dedicated two years to abridging
Abridgement
Abridgement or abridgment is a term defined as "shortening" or "condensing" and is most commonly used in reference to the act of reducing a written work, typically a book, into a shorter form...

 and redrafting it. He was also briefly engaged in writing a biography of Charles Brockden Brown
Charles Brockden Brown
Charles Brockden Brown , an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period, is generally regarded by scholars as the most ambitious and accomplished US novelist before James Fenimore Cooper...

 for Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853.-Biography:...

' Library of American Biography. Prescott was not familiar with American literature, and he based the work on other contemporary biographies of Brown. As a result, the biography has had little academic impact. In 1835, he took residence in the rural town of Nahant, Massachusetts
Nahant, Massachusetts
Nahant is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,632 at the 2000 census. With just of land area, it is the smallest municipality by area in the state...

, due to concerns about his health. He was here accustomed to riding his horses for the purpose of exercise, and he persevered even in sub-zero temperatures. Prescott finished the concluding chapter of the work in July 1836, and despite the amount of time and effort which he had spent on the work, was at first unsure about publishing it. However, his father argued that refusing to do so would amount to cowardice, and this swayed him. Prescott had previously considered publishing the work in London first, and therefore a printed draft copy of the work was sent to a Colonel Aspinwall for consideration. However, both Longman
Longman
Longman was a publishing company founded in London, England in 1724. It is now an imprint of Pearson Education.-Beginnings:The Longman company was founded by Thomas Longman , the son of Ezekiel Longman , a gentleman of Bristol. Thomas was apprenticed in 1716 to John Osborn, a London bookseller, and...

 and Murray, which were at the time the leading British publishers, refused the work, and Prescott decided to postpone.

The History of Ferdinand and Isabella was published on Christmas Day, 1837 by the American Stationary Company, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, with a print run of 500 copies. It was dedicated to his father. To the surprise of Prescott and the publisher, the book sold very well—the original print run was insufficient to adequately supply Boston's bookshops, let alone the whole nation's. It was first published in London by Richard Bentley
Richard Bentley (publisher)
Richard Bentley was a 19th century English publisher. From a family of publishers, Bentley started a firm with his brother in 1819. Ten years later, he went into partnership with the publisher Henry Colburn...

 in early 1838. The work received excellent critical reviews, both in America and in Britain, where Henry Vassall-Fox and Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...

 expressed their admiration of the work. It was also noticed in France, despite the fact that a French translation was not available at the time. Prescott was adamant that his work should not be altered by anyone other than himself, and when he heard that his publishers were considering an abridgement of the History of Ferdinand and Isabella in June 1839, he produced an abridgement of the work himself, which resulted in the original project's cancellation.

The Conquest of Mexico

Prescott expressed interest in his correspondence in writing a biography of Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

, and Ticknor records that he sent Prescott "a collection of about 50 volumes" of relevant material. However, after writing to Ángel Calderón de la Barca
Ángel Calderón de la Barca y Belgrano
Ángel Calderón de la Barca y Belgrano was a Spanish nobleman and politician who served as Minister of State between 1853 and 1854. He was a correspondent of William H...

, a Spanish minister living in Mexico, who was able to provide source material, Prescott started research on what was to become the History of the Conquest of Mexico. He extensively read the works of Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt was a German philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of Humboldt Universität. He is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of language and to the theory and practice...

, who had written on Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

, and started corresponding with the historian Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...

, the Swiss writer Sismondi and the French historian Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry
Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry
Augustin Thierry was a French historian.He was born in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, the elder brother of Amédée Simon Dominique Thierry. He had no advantages of birth or fortune, but was distinguished at the Blois Grammar School, and entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1811...

. He also received assistance in collecting sources from a college friend, Middleton, and a Dr. Lembke. In contrast to the lengthy time spent researching the History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Prescott started drafting the History of the Conquest of Mexico in October 1839. However, Prescott faced difficulties in writing the work which he had not encountered previously. There was relatively little scholarship on Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

 civilization, and Prescott dismissed much of it as "speculation", and he therefore had to rely almost exclusively on primary sources (with the exception of Humboldt). In particular, he considered Edward King
Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough
Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough was an Irish antiquarian who sought to prove that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were a Lost Tribe of Israel...

's theory that the pre-Columbian civilizations were non-indigenous to be fallacious, although he was greatly indebted to him for his anthology of Aztec codices
Aztec codices
Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture....

 in the Antiquities of Mexico
Antiquities of Mexico
Antiquities of Mexico is a compilation of facsimile reproductions of Mesoamerican literature such as Maya codices, Mixtec codices, and Aztec codices as well as historical accounts and explorers' descriptions of archaeological ruins. It was assembled and published by Edward King, Lord Kingsborough,...

. Prescott also studied Spanish writers contemporary to the conquest, most significantly Torquemada
Fray Juan de Torquemada
Juan de Torquemada was a Franciscan friar, missionary and historian in Spanish colonial Mexico. He is most famous for his 1615 monumental history of the Indigenous entitled Los veinte y un libros rituales y Monarchia Indiana, commonly known as simply Monarchia Indiana...

 and Toribio de Benavente.
Prescott received three honorary degrees in this period—an honorary doctorate in laws from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in autumn 1840, the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...

 in July 1841 and South Carolina College in December 1841. He also helped Frances Inglis find a publisher for her autobiographical work Life in Mexico.
Prescott found it difficult to evaluate Mesoamerican scientific and mathematical achievements, because of his relative ignorance of those subjects. While working in Boston in 1841, he met George Howard, who was to stay a close friend for the remainder of his life. Prescott worked industriously throughout 1840–1842, and as a result, the work was finished by August 1843. It was published by Harper & Brothers
Harper & Brothers
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins.-History:James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business J. & J. Harper in 1817. Their two brothers, Joseph Wesley Harper and Fletcher Harper, joined them...

, New York in December, Bentley issuing the British edition. His elderly father had suffered a stroke in October, which resulted in temporary paralysis, so Prescott spent most of the winter attending him in Pepperell
Pepperell, Massachusetts
Pepperell is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,497 at the 2010 census. It includes the village of East Pepperell.-History:...

. The History of the Conquest of Mexico was received extremely well, both critically and by the general public, despite Prescott's fears to the contrary. Those praising the work included George Hillard in the North American Review, George Ticknor Curtis
George Ticknor Curtis
George Ticknor Curtis was an American author, writer, historian and lawyer.Curtis was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University in 1832 and then Harvard Law School. After admittance to the Massachusetts bar in 1836, he practiced first in Boston and then in New York...

 in the Christian Examiner
Christian Examiner
The Christian Examiner is a Christian newspaper. The Christian Examiner is a monthly publication serving Southern California, Minnesota and Washington state. The newspapers report on regional, national and international news and events from a Christian perspective...

, Joseph Cogswell
Joseph Cogswell
Joseph Green Cogswell was a librarian, bibliographer and an innovative educator.-Education:...

 in the Methodist Quarterly, as well as the Dean of St. Paul's, Henry Hart Milman
Henry Hart Milman
The Very Reverend Henry Hart Milman was an English historian and ecclesiastic.He was born in London, the third son of Sir Francis Milman, 1st Baronet, physician to King George III . Educated at Eton and at Brasenose College, Oxford, his university career was brilliant...

.

The Conquest of Peru

In 1844, Prescott was painted by Joseph Alexander Ames
Joseph Alexander Ames
Joseph Alexander Ames was an American artist, primarily known for portrait and genre painting. Originally named Joseph Emes, he was born in Roxbury, New Hampshire. Ames began painting at a young age. At the age of twelve Henry Theodore Tuckerman wrote about one of his paintings. After moderate...

, and also commissioned a bust from Richard Saltonstall Greenough
Richard Saltonstall Greenough
Richard Saltonstall Greenough was an American sculptor and younger brother to Neoclassical sculptor Horatio Greenough....

. He was not active in researching for the Conquest of Peru until spring 1844, although he had already decided to write a work concerning Inca civilization while researching pre-Columbian Mexico, and listened to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso de la Vega , born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, was a historian and writer from the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. The son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman, he is recognized primarily for his contributions to Inca history, culture, and society...

's Comentarios Reales de los Incas. He further studied Pedro Cieza de León
Pedro Cieza de León
Pedro Cieza de León was a Spanish conquistador and chronicler of Peru. He is known primarily for his history and description of Peru, Crónicas del Perú...

's Crónicas del Perú, the works of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, astronomer, and scientist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated or Alcalá de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied...

 and Diego Fernández
Diego Fernandez
Diego Fernández was a Spanish adventurer and historian of the 16th century.Born at Palencia, he was educated for the church, but about 1545 he embarked for Peru, where he served in the royal army under Alonzo de Alvarado...

's Primera y segunda parte de la Historia del Piru. Prescott's progress was stalled by the unexpected death of his brother Edward at sea. His daughter Elizabeth was seriously ill, so Prescott and his family traveled to Niagara
Niagara, New York
Niagara is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 8,378. The town is named after the famous waterfall Niagara Falls....

, which he considered a more healthy environment for her. After her recovery, they returned to Nahant in the summer, where Prescott started drafting the Conquest, and, as was his custom, spent the autumn in Peperell. Prescott's father died at the age of 82 on December 8, which deeply upset him. He took a two-month break from writing to support his widowed mother and settle matters concerning his father's estate. His father left numerous stocks, shares and property that amounted to $343,736.86, almost all of which was shared between Prescott and his sister. Prescott was elected to the Institut de France
Institut de France
The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...

 in February 1845, in recognition of his accomplishments as a historian. He took the place of Martín Fernández de Navarrete
Martín Fernández de Navarrete
Martín Fernández de Navarrete y Ximénez de Tejada , was a Spanish sailor and historian who rediscovered Las Casas' abstract of the log Christopher Columbus made on his first voyage.- Early life and career :...

, who had died the previous year, after a vote was cast. He was also admitted to the Prussian Academy of Sciences
Prussian Academy of Sciences
The Prussian Academy of Sciences was an academy established in Berlin on 11 July 1700, four years after the Akademie der Künste or "Arts Academy", to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer.-Origins:...

 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. In the summer of 1845, a collection of articles Prescott had published in the North American Review were published as Biographical and Critical Miscellanies by Bentley in octavo
Octavo
Octavo to is a technical term describing the format of a book.Octavo may also refer to:* Octavo is a grimoire in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett...

, and an edition was also prepared simultaneously by Harper & Brothers in New York. Prescott was writing 12 pages of the work per day in the summer of 1845, and completed the first two chapters of the Conquest. He used the inheritance from his father to buy a house on Beacon Street
Beacon Street
Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and several of its western suburbs. Beacon Street in Boston, Brookline, Brighton, and Newton is not to be confused with the Beacon Street in nearby Somerville, or others elsewhere.-Description:...

 in Boston. The building is now a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

, and is also known as the William Hickling Prescott House. Prescott moved into the house during December 1845, and set himself a year to finish the Conquest of Peru. In March, his eyesight, which had recovered significantly, suddenly deteriorated. Prescott was also suffering from acute dyspepsia
Dyspepsia
Dyspepsia , also known as upset stomach or indigestion, refers to a condition of impaired digestion. It is a medical condition characterized by chronic or recurrent pain in the upper abdomen, upper abdominal fullness and feeling full earlier than expected when eating...

 and rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...

, and he travelled to Nahant to "benefit from the sea-air". This did not prevent him travelling to Washington, where he dined at the White House with President James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...

. He was also entertained by John Y. Mason
John Y. Mason
John Young Mason was an American politician, diplomat, and United States federal judge.-Early life, education, and career:...

, the former United States Secretary of the Navy
United States Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy of the United States of America is the head of the Department of the Navy, a component organization of the Department of Defense...

, who informed him that a copy of Prescott's Conquest of Mexico had been placed in the library of every fighting ship. The Conquest of Peru was completed in March 1847. As with previous works, it was published by Harper & Brothers in the United States and Bentley in Britain. The original US print run was 7,500 copies, and the books were sold for $1 each. It was translated into Spanish, French, German and Dutch, and sold excellently. As with his previous works, it was also well-received critically.

Research on Philip II

Shortly after the publication of the Conquest of Peru, Prescott turned his mind to writing a history of Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

, which he had been contemplating for several years. John Lothrop Motley
John Lothrop Motley
John Lothrop Motley was an American historian and diplomat.-Biography:...

, who planned to write an independent work on the subject, was aided by Prescott, who gave him access to his library. Although the two corresponded, there seems to have been little collaboration on their respective works. Prescott had started searching for sources as early as 1842, but a number of difficulties confronted him in his study of Philip II. The principal archives of historical material were held in Simancas
Simancas
Simancas is a town and municipality of central Spain, located in the province of Valladolid, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León...

, but neither Lembke (who had collected materials for the Conquest of Mexico) nor Middleton were able to gain access to them. They had been informed that the library was so disordered as to make productive research impossible, even if access had been gained. However, Lembke, who as a diplomat had been expelled from Spain, made the acquaintance of two wealthy Parisian scholars, Mignet
François Mignet
François Auguste Marie Mignet was a French journalist and historian.-Biography:He was born in Aix-en-Provence , France. His father was a locksmith from the Vendée, who enthusiastically accepted the principles of the French Revolution and encouraged liberal ideas in his son...

 and Ternaux-Compans, who offered him access to their manuscript collections. Furthermore, de Gayangos assisted greatly by locating important documents in the British Museum and in the collection of the bibliomaniac Thomas Phillipps
Thomas Phillipps
Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet was an English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century, due to his severe condition of bibliomania...

, who owned around 60,000 manuscripts. He also borrowed several manuscripts from the archives in Brussels, having received letters from the respected Belgian diplomat Sylvain Van de Weyer
Sylvain Van de Weyer
Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer was a Belgian politician, and then the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom....

 in London. de Gayangos became Professor of Arabic literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....

 at the Complutense University of Madrid
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...

 in late 1842, and subsequently lent Prescott rare books and manuscripts from the university library. By the summer of 1848, Prescott had over 300 works on the subject at his disposal, but he continued to have serious problems with his eyesight; an examination by an oculist confirmed that there was untreatable damage to his retina. Prescott had been commissioned by the Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society
The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history...

 to write a biography of the scholar John Pickering in 1848, which he wrote for publication later in that year. Prescott was invited to write a history of the Mexican–American War
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...

, but declined, as he was uninterested in writing on contemporary events.

Prescott's main secondary source for the history was Leopold von Ranke
Leopold von Ranke
Leopold von Ranke was a German historian, considered one of the founders of modern source-based history. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources , an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics .-...

's Fürsten und Völker von Süd-Europa im sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhundert, a comprehensive work which included a detailed history of the papacy. Prescott admired Ranke's empirical historical method, and considered his work to be the best of his predecessors on the subject. He had four copies of the relevant sections of the work reprinted in a large typeface so he could read it without assistance. He had made a broad plan of the work by February 1849. Prescott started writing the draft on July 26. At this time, Prescott was a creditor of John White Webster
John White Webster
John White Webster , born in Boston, Massachusetts, was a professor of chemistry and geology at Harvard Medical College...

, the chemist and murderer, and he was subsequently involved in his trial.

Visits to Washington and Europe

Prescott visited Washington D.C. in spring 1850, where he met Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...

, then President of the United States, as well as numerous other prominent figures, including Henry Bulwer, the British ambassador, and Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...

, the former Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

, who had been a friend of Prescott's father. Soon afterward, he decided to visit England. He embarked from New York on May 22, and arrived at Liverpool on June 3. There he stayed with an old friend, Alexander Smith, and became reacquainted with Mary Lyell, the wife of the geologist Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by slow-moving forces still in operation...

. He traveled with the Lyells to London, where they stayed in Mivart's Hotel. Prescott was greeted in London, as in Washington, by the most important members of society—he dined with the Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

 Henry Temple, the former Prime Minister Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...

, as well as the elderly Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

. He went to the races at Ascot
Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in the small town of Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races...

, and was presented at court to Queen Victoria. On June 22, he traveled to Oxford to receive an honorary doctorate in law. In Oxford, he stayed at Cuddesdon Palace
Cuddesdon Palace
Cuddesdon Palace was the episcopal palace for the Bishop of Oxford, located near the village of Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, England.The palace was erected by John Bancroft, a 17th century Bishop of Oxford.The original palace was replaced by a second palace....

, the home of the Bishop of Oxford
Bishop of Oxford
The Bishop of Oxford is the diocesan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury; his seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford...

, Samuel Wilberforce
Samuel Wilberforce
Samuel Wilberforce was an English bishop in the Church of England, third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his time and place...

, who was absent because of the christening of the infant Prince Arthur
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and...

. Prescott met Spencer Compton
Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton
Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton , known as Lord Compton from 1796 to 1812 and as Earl Compton from 1812 to 1828, was a British nobleman and patron of science and the arts....

, the president of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

, who was also receiving an honorary degree. He left London for Paris, where he arrived on July 20. Two days later, he traveled to Brussels, where he stayed in Coudenberg
Coudenberg
Coudenberg or Koudenberg is a small hill in Brussels where the Palace of Coudenberg was built.For nearly 700 years, the Castle and then the Palace of Coudenberg were the seat of government of the counts, dukes, archdukes, kings, emperors and governors who from the 11th century until its...

, the site of a residence of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

, returning to London on July 29. Traveling north, Prescott visited Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle is a castle and stately home in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. It is the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest, and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a Grade I listed building.-History:Alnwick...

 and the ruins of Hulm Abbey in Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

. On his arrival in Edinburgh, he met the geologists Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...

 and Roderick Murchison
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet KCB DCL FRS FRSE FLS PRGS PBA MRIA was a Scottish geologist who first described and investigated the Silurian system.-Early life and work:...

, whom he accompanied to Inveraray
Inveraray
Inveraray is a royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is on the western shore of Loch Fyne, near its head, and on the A83 road. It is the traditional county town of Argyll and ancestral home to the Duke of Argyll.-Coat of arms:...

, where he visited Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Castle is an estate house near Inveraray in Argyll in western Scotland.It is the seat of the Duke of Argyll and a Category A listed building.-Ghosts:...

. Prescott then traveled south, through Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, where he was entertained by George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland
George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland KG , styled Viscount Trentham until 1803, Earl Gower between 1803 and 1833 and Marquess of Stafford in 1833, was a British peer....

. He embarked for New York on September 14, arriving on September 27.

Final works

Prescott spent the winter in Boston, and returned to the composition of his work. He gradually changed the focus of the History, deciding that he was a better writer of history than biography and worked solidly for the next two years, alternating between Boston and Nahant. This period was interrupted only by the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth in early 1852. Her husband was James Alexander; they settled in a house near the family home in Pepperell. Prescott's mother fell ill on May 17 and died soon after, which caused Prescott to fall into a bout of depression that lasted until the winter. He returned to his work, and continued at the pace that he was able through the remainder of 1852 and 1853, which passed uneventfully. Prescott started to suffer seriously from rheumatism during the former year, and as a result he abandoned his residence at Nahant. He bought a house in the then rural town of Lynn, Massachusetts
Lynn, Massachusetts
Lynn is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 89,050 at the 2000 census. An old industrial center, Lynn is home to Lynn Beach and Lynn Heritage State Park and is about north of downtown Boston.-17th century:...

, where he was visited by Charles Lyell and his family in June 1853. On August 22, he finished the second volume of the History. The first two volumes were finished by May 1855, but not immediately published. Changes in British copyright law and a change of publishers caused Prescott to delay publication until November. Compared to his previous works, the History received little coverage in the press or in academic journals. It was suggested to him at this time that he should write a biography of Charles V, but he declined, as he regarded the work of William Robertson
William Robertson (historian)
William Robertson FRSE FSA was a Scottish historian, minister of religion, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh...

 on the subject to be definitive. However, he wrote an appendix to Robertson's The History of the reign of Charles V in May 1855; it was published in December 1856. Previously uninterested in politics (although he had predicted the Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 victory in 1840
United States presidential election, 1840
The United States presidential election of 1840 saw President Martin Van Buren fight for re-election against an economic depression and a Whig Party unified for the first time behind war hero William Henry Harrison and his "log cabin campaign"...

,) Prescott supported and voted for the Republican John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...

 in the 1856 Presidential election
United States presidential election, 1856
The United States presidential election of 1856 was an unusually heated contest that led to the election of James Buchanan, the ambassador to the United Kingdom. Republican candidate John C. Frémont condemned the Kansas–Nebraska Act and crusaded against the expansion of slavery, while Democrat...

. He continued to work on the third volume of the History until he suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 on 3 February 1858. Prescott recovered, but his health was permanently affected, and he decided to temporarily retire from writing. The third volume was therefore published in April, and its scope was more limited than Prescott had originally planned. He worked on the Spanish translation of the Conquest of Mexico, which had been prepared by José Fernando Ramírez
José Fernando Ramírez
José Fernando Ramírez was a distinguished Mexican historian in the 19th century.Ramírez was born in Parral, Chihuahua but grew up in Durango, where he became a prominent liberal politician. After graduating with a degree in law from San Luis Gonzaga he was elected several times to the Chamber of...

 and Lucas Alamán
Lucas Alamán
Lucas Ignacio Alamán y Escalada was a Mexican scientist, politician, historian and writer. He studied at the Real Colegio de Minas de la Nueva España. He frequently traveled on his credentials as a scientist and diplomat, becoming one of the most educated men in Mexico...

.

Personal life

William H. Prescott and Susan Amory Prescott (c. 1799 – 1859) had four children; the first, Catherine Prescott (23 September 1824 – 1 February 1829) died of a childhood illness. William Gardiner Prescott (27 January 1826 – 15 August 1895) attended Harvard from 1841 to 1844 and worked as a lawyer in Boston. He married Josephine Augusta Peabody on 6 November 1851, and inherited Headquarters House. William Gardiner's daughter Catherine Elizabeth Prescott married a Hebert Timmins on 22 February 1887. Elizabeth (27 July 1828 – 24 May 1864) married James Lawrence, a distant cousin. The youngest was William Amory (25 January 1830 – 13 March 1867).

Death and legacy

In January 1859, Prescott decided to resume his work on Philip II, with the goal of writing a final fourth volume. On January 29, he suffered a second stroke, which resulted in his immediate death. He was buried with his parents in St. Paul's Church, and his funeral was attended by representatives, among others, of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

 and the Essex Institute
Essex Institute
The Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, was "a literary, historical and scientific society." It maintained a museum, library, historic houses; arranged educational programs; and issued numerous scholarly publications...

.

Prescott's work has remained popular and influential to the present day, and his meticulous use of sources, bibliographical citations
Citation
Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...

 and critical notes was unprecedented among American historians. As the work of an amateur historian, the History of Ferdinand and Isabella was an outstanding achievement, and it arguably was the best English-language work on the subject published until then. The major problems with the work to the modern day historian are not related to the quality of the research or Prescott's understanding of the period, but rather that his focus is on the major political and military events as opposed to social and economic conditions. It has also been argued that Prescott partially subscribed to the Great Man theory
Great man theory
The Great Man Theory was a popular 19th century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of "great men", or heroes: highly influential individuals who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence, wisdom, or Machiavellianism utilized their power in a way that...

. The Conquest of Mexico has endured more than any other of Prescott's work: it is regarded as his greatest literary accomplishment. However, modern scholarship agrees that there are problems with Prescott's characterization of the conquest. David Levin has argued that the Conquest shows "inadequate attention to detail" and remains a broad and general account of events. In contrast to the Conquest of Mexico, the Conquest of Peru has received relatively little modern scholarly attention, perhaps due to some key similarities in style and structure. However, it is generally thought that the work was the authoritative account until the 20th century, and that Prescott used a broader range of source material than any previous writer on the subject. However, the archeological and anthropological
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 aspects of both works have been heavily criticized by historians since the end of the 19th century. Prescott had never visited archeological sites in Mesoamerica and his understanding of Inca and Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

 culture was weak. In defense of Prescott, it has been argued that despite advances in archeological understanding, and a reconceptualization of the nature of pre-Columbian society, the works remain broadly historically accurate, and Prescott's elaborations on fact were due to a fundamental lack of source material. In contrast, Phillip the Second is considered essentially an inferior piece—it lacks the epic structure and literary merits of Prescott's other work, and the work has not received more critical attention than other contemporary accounts of the monarch's life.

There is a popular misconception that Prescott was completely blind, which seems to have stemmed from a misunderstanding of his comment in the preface to The Conquest of Mexico, in which he stated, "Nor have I ever corrected, or even read, my own original draft". The myth was further propagated by a contemporary New York review of the Conquest, and has been a common theme in popular accounts of his work. Other related embellishments of Prescott's disability have also occurred—Samuel Eliot Morison, writing in a 1959 article for The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...

, claimed that Prescott had an artificial eye, although there is no evidence to suggest this. It has been argued that Prescott's biographers have naturally been drawn to romanticize his life due to Prescott's own romantic style of history.

Four biographies of Prescott have been written. In 1864, George Ticknor
George Ticknor
George Ticknor was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature....

 published a biography based on Prescott's then-unpublished correspondence, to which the later biographers have been greatly indebted. Rollo Ogden's 1904 account is more a stylistic modernization of Ticknor's work. Harry Thurston Peck
Harry Thurston Peck
Harry Thurston Peck was an American classical scholar, author, editor, and critic.-Biography:Peck was born in Stamford, Conn. He was educated in private schools and at Columbia College, graduating in 1881, where his literary gifts attracted wide attention...

's 1905 account is considered academically inferior due to its essentially derivative nature. C.G. Gardiner's 1969 work is considered the definitive critical biography of Prescott, taking into account a wide range of unpublished documents that were unavailable to earlier biographers.

The town of Prescott
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....

 in Arizona was named in his honor, as was the William H. Prescott House (Headquarters House). Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott
Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott
Colegio Anglo Americano Prescott is a school in Arequipa, Peru, named after William H. Prescott, the American scientific historian. The school was founded in 1965 by a group of British, American and Peruvian citizens; it retains its bilingual emphasis, maintaining a student exchange program with...

, a school in Arequipa, Peru
Arequipa
Arequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...

, also bears his name.

See also

  • Spanish conquest of Mexico
    Spanish conquest of Mexico
    The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés...

  • Spanish conquest of Peru
  • William Hickling Prescott house, Beacon Street, Boston

External links

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